Van Puffelen — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Van Puffelen originally started its life as a typical Amsterdam brown cafe, but expanded over the years into two monument buildings and now incorporates a restaurant.

The bar serves a decent selection of draft beers and attracts tourists and passers-by looking for somewhere to have a drink in a convivial atmosphere. Due to its location on Prinsengracht, contained within the 9 streets area, the bar tends to get very busy, particularly on sunny evenings. There is a small outside seating area which sometimes spills out onto the pavement making it awkward for pedestrians. The bar is a popular venue for hen and stag nights. It has a mooring on the canal for those wishing to visit by boat.

The adjoining restaurant is beautifully decorated creating a very cosy atmosphere. Here you can dine a la carte or choose your own two or three course fixed price menu, although for certain dishes, a small supplement is required. Meat, fish, vegetarian and vegan options are available. Service tends to be on the slow side. As far as pub grub goes, the food is generally good, but fails to live up to the expectations of its glamorous surroundings as it lacks in...

Just an okay dining experience. Luckily the ambiance was nice and service was friendly. Although they didn’t have a bunch of dishes on their menus and the ones substituted for them did not have any descriptions anywhere, so had no idea what one was ordering until it appeared. Decided to go for one of their “substitution dishes” to find out after it was served that it was made w a sauce someone in our party was allergic to (there was confusion on what was in it exactly and that eventually got cleared up). Instead of suggesting for the dish to be remade w a different sauce or substitute it all together, the waitstaff kept insisting on whether we should order more food in addition to what we had. Meaning we would have to order and pay for more food rather than just fix the situation. It was already bad enough they were out of a few items, then deal w this unexpected surprise. There went 50+ euros down the toilet for a meal we didn’t even enjoy and left hungry afterwards. Won’t return and cannot recommend this...

I don't really like giving single star reviews, but when management consciously decides to offer a terrible service. It deserves this. The place was totally understaffed or overbooked. We had to wait an hour for our starter and another hour for dinner. Both times we had to ask when we would get served.

Besides all the waiting, items from the small menu, were sold out/ not available. The wine is served in little clumsy glasses. Nearing the end of this disaster, they couldn't even coordinate the deserts. My wife had already long finished her desert when finally mine was served. See the picture. I had all the time to take ;-)

Our Neighbours got a 20% discount for the bad service when they complained. We did not complain, just mentioned the we weren't very satisfied ... and so we did not get a discount.

So a well deserved 1* review. You won't find me here ever again and I would advise you to go elsewhere. There are enough restaurants that value their guests and offer you a great meal and an...